Having been living abroad for the better part of the last two decades, I recently started to pay some attention again to Canadian media (The Gazette, La Presse, Le Devoir, the Globe and Mail) via my smartphone. I am quite amazed and saddened by the continuing obsession with French-English issues in the Montreal media.

When I was growing up in the Montreal area, in a bilingual family, with friends of all origins, there never was much problem about language – most people I knew spoke both languages, at the very least. It was actually my wife, who is from Europe, who first pointed out to me the quintessential, if at first puzzling, Montreal way of constantly switching between French and English as you encounter various friends in the course of an evening or change subjects, and even at Sunday dinners at my parents’ with my brothers and sister.

It always felt that it might be more in the rest of Canada that the real French-English issue existed, although we took all the heat for it here in Montreal. True story: people in Toronto, hearing French spoken, could not distinguish it from Polish.

It is sad that the whole issue has become so infected in Montreal, where it should instead be used as an enormous competitive advantage.

But first, let’s be honest and admit a few truths, or kill a few myths:

If you have lived in Montreal for more than five years and still can’t speak conversational French, you’re not really trying (same applies in Madrid with Spanish, Stockholm with Swedish, and so on).

Speaking many languages needs to stop being framed (particularly by other Canadians) as a negative. Bilingualism should be a non-issue in Montreal.

Bilingualism in the rest of Canada, except in a few other bilingual pockets, doesn’t make much sense anymore and will never be a reality. Nowadays, nobody really still promotes official bilingualism, anyhow. The opportunity of shaping a unique, bilingual culture coast to coast has been lost forever, for better or worse, but that culture actually exists in Montreal, and it should to be treasured with pride, as great and unique.

English in Quebec is not in any danger of disappearing, as Quebec will inevitably evolve toward “de facto” bilingualism, as Quebecers need to know English when work takes them all over North America and the world, and as English continues to gain prominence internationally.

People leaving Montreal generally do so not for political reasons, but economic ones. Jobs are scarce, pay is low, after 40 years of bickering … therefore, to the United States or elsewhere we go.

Once you speak French or English, fairly fluently, even with a strong accent, everybody thinks you’re a true Montrealer. We come from all over the place, it’s been part of our culture of openness dating back many centuries. Let’s stop torpedoing our heritage.

Montrealers need to realize that all this nonsense around language issues only hurts the city. How many people abroad hold this odd view that Montreal is a city where you get jailed for not speaking the right language, and where nobody speaks anything else than French? This is crazy. We know that Montreal is the only truly bilingual city in North America and one of the few such cases in the world!

We really need to transcend this fake problem. Most Montrealers are functionally bilingual, We should put our energies into turning around this city. We should maybe even build more ambitiously on our achievements and even make other languages, like Spanish and Chinese, also functional languages in this city (to be taught at schools, used in public services, hospitals, universities, etc.) We need to stop shooting ourselves in the foot, start reaching for the world, stop apologizing for being bilingual in a unilingual country – it’s not our issue!

This city has everything it takes to become a hugely successful, globally connected city of the future, if only we can go beyond this, continue to open up to diversity, sustainability, to global business, to exchanges of ideas – in all languages.François Duchastelis an architect, entrepreneur and real-estate adviser currently living in Shanghai.

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